Sonic vs Alien vs Predator
by lolwulf
Summary: The world Sonic the hedgehog lives in is about to get caught up in a conflict that will kill those dearest to him. Rated M for violence, character death and language. First fanfic, reviews wanted. Posted here for a while until it gets closer to AVP style.
1. Something Alien

**I do not own any of the characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog Universe, nor do I own any of those in the Aliens, Predator or Alien vs Predator Universes.**

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The machines and cameras whirred and buzzed following the fast blue figure that bounced throught the fun-fair like base. Eggman stood over a computer screen, monitering each camera in turn and watching the chaos. He slammed his fist down on the keypad, much to the robot operators worry. "Blast that Hedgehog!" He cursed in a screeching voice. Sure enough, behind him appeared a blue hedgehog, tossing a small gem into the air haphazardly. "Nice to see you too, Doctor" He smiled. Eggman grinned devilishly, his egg shaped body spinning around to the keypad and pushing a red button. A robotic arm appeared from nowhere and grabbed the hedgehog around his middle, securing his arms in the process. "I finally have you, Sonic" The overweight Doctor laughed "All these years chasing you around, I never thought to get you this way, so simply" The small gem that had been in Sonic's glove hand clinked on the ground, attracting Eggman's attention. An underling robot, about Sonic's height and remarkably similar to Eggman (Albeit entriely red) picked it up and gave it to his master. Eggman observed it and smiled. It was grey and partially transparant. Eggman chuckled. "The final chaos emerald" He laughed "Once again in my possession. Except this time, none of your friends are here to help you stop me" Sonic looked perplexed. Eggman grinned and pressed another button on the keypad. The screen, which had been showing footage of the hedgehog-wrecked corridors, changed to show a singular image. Tails, Sonic's twin tailed fox friend, was sitting in a cell guarded by Eggman's robots, his tails secured together with a glowing ring. The screen flickered and changed to show a red Echidna, Knuckles, fruitlessly punching at the walls in a seperate cell and mouthing obscenities at the guards who electrocuted him with tazers. Rouge the bat, renowned treasure hunter, was shown locked inside a pyramid where jewels covered the walls, with her robot accomplace Omega slamming his large metal hands against the walls. Shadow, who was similar to Sonic bar his black fur and red highlights, leaned calmly against one of the artefacts in the pyramid cell.

"Your friends were all very stupid" Eggman spat malignantly, turning off the screens "It was easy to trick them into my cells. Rouge was tempted by the jewels, and I only had to mention Maria and Shadow went running with her. As for Tails and Knuckles, they were a little trickier" His grin widened "...but these handy robotic arms can get the best of anyone when you're caught unaware" Eggman walked over to a wall, where six other gems much like the grey one shone brilliantly in their little placeholds. The last space was filled by Eggman, who slammed the stone in. The wall was set alight with an aura. Eggman chuckled. The whole room, and indeed his base, began to shudder. A camera flicked back onto the screen and presented a canon, uncouthly shaped like a nose on Eggman's base (Shaped like his face. The doctor was very egotistical and insisted on his designs mimicking his flawless figure). The canon opened up, revealing it to be made up of four triangles with a large rod in the centre. The rod charged up a multicoloured energy. "Get me the world leaders" Eggman ordered his robot minion, who began typing desperately on the keypad. Several old men appeared on the screen, all looking panic stricken. "Gentlemen" Eggman announced "I have finally obtained all seven chaos emeralds, and have launched my Chaos canon" For a man with a 300 IQ Eggman was not very imaginetive, Sonic thought. "This canon has the power to destroy the Earth. I have several mirror satellites placed in space. I simply have to fire skyward at them, and a city will be destroyed..."

"You're a monster" A Japanese man announced in rough English. Eggman laughed mockingly.

"I require ownership of the planet. To be ruler of this world!" He cawed. Sonic struggled free of the robotic hands to no aveil. All he could do was watch, and it was killing him. It came to his attention that the robotic guard in front of him was paying him no attention. With all the upper body strength he could use he thrusted his legs forward, kicking the robot in the back. It went flying towards Eggman, knocking him onto the keypad and letting his enormous girth push the button to release Sonic. He dropped to the floor, one knee bent with a gloved hand on it, and got up, dashing for the wall. "For such a big time villain, Doctor" Sonic began "You're not so clever" He slammed his fist into the wall and the energy flowed through him. The interrupted camera feed switched back to the cannon to show the energy fading. "No!" Eggman cried, scrambling up and pushing his minon aside. Sonic began to glow and turned a mighty sparkling gold colour. He smirked. "Your plan's finished Eggman" The emeralds flew in every direction from the wall to the sky, hovering in a circle and dashing every which way. Eggman kept cursing Sonic and ran for a small, semi-circular pod, his Egg-O-Matic, and hovered away to one of his more recluse bases.

Sonic pondered whether to chase Eggman; he could catch him easily, if he wished. In the corner of his eye he spotted the incapacitated robot on the ground reach and press a button. The powerful canon fired upwards into the sky and the base began to shift while the robot shut down. Sonic desperately looked around for an exit but remembered his friends. He dashed down the now shifting corridors that were closing around him, golden sparks flying from his body like tiny bits of shrapnel. He came up to the cell where Tails was being kept. The fox was sitting, exhausted from struggling in his chains, his ears flopped downwards. Sonic bent the bars either side and alerted Tails of his presence. "Hey buddy" He smiled. Tails jumped upwards with joy as Sonic released him from the chains. "Sonic!" Tails said with joy "Eggman's going to blow up the world-"

"I know" Sonic sighed "Come on, we need to get Knuckles and everyone else" Tails nodded and began to fly by spinning his two tails. Usually he could keep up with Sonic's speeds by doing this, but while Sonic was under the influence of the chaos emeralds his speeds were unreal. Knuckles' cell was more recluse than Tails', found in a completely separate block of the building. He offered little thanks on his release, merely offering his thanks by trying to find the tomb where Shadow, Rouge and Omega were. Tails and Knuckles hovered down to a suspicious building while Sonic zipped around the entire base, checking for any more hostages. "Sonic, over here!" Tails said, pointing to the bunker they had discovered. Sonic dashed downwards into the door of the locked bunker and broke it. Inside, Shadow was facing a wall, his arms crossed, while Rouge sat in the opposite corner with a sad expression comforted only by the hulking robot, Omega. "About time" Shadow muttered upon seeing the light, marching outwards while pushing Sonic and co out of his way. Rouge ran after him, making some apologetic words, while Omega politely asked for them to be excused as Shadow skated away.

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**3 months later**

Rouge stood bored, hand on hip near a dark alley. A car drove up, dark windows but otherwise a plain working class car. She leaned forward to the driver's window, allowing herself to become more accessible. "Hey hun" She smiled seductively "Looking for a good time?"

"Uh" The driver said nervously, staring into the expanse between Rouge's assets. He looked up and saw her bat face, instantly retching. "No offense, but you're not my type" He said, rolling up the window and driving away.

"Bastard!" Rouge shouted after the car, sliding against the wall and sitting down. She heard a scuttling coming from the alley and peered around the corner to see the commotion. It was probably only a rat or a stray feline searching for food in the bins though it still concerned her. She couldn't see anything; it was too dark for her to make out any figures. She shrugged it off and stood back up, brushing the damp off of her (it had become a habit that she couldn't avoid. There was no possible way of getting dry like this, but it allowed her to wipe off the mud and things that had accumulated in the mud so as to avoid some embarrassment). As she did this, she heard the scuttling again, turning her head hastily around the wall again. "Shoo!" She shouted angrily. The scuttling stopped. She frowned and returned to brushing herself off. Small amounts of brick began to crumble onto her head. "What the hell?" She quizzed, looking up. A small spider like creature changed her vision to black, covering her face and sliding its small tube into her mouth until she faded to unconsciousness.

Sitting on the grass and counting clouds, Sonic grew ever more bored. "How long's this going to take, Tails?" He asked, trying to show his boredom in his tone of voice. Tails was wielding a blue and orange painted machine with a spinning ariel on top that whirred violently as he held it near a piece of debris. "I'm almost finished" He replied with a similar tone; he was growing bored of constantly answering Sonic's questions of when he was going to finish. The debris fell from the sky the night before and Sonic had asked Tails to accompany him in checking it out. Tails' machine analyse a variety of different specifications, mostly about how old the material was and indeed what it was. Finally, the ariel stopped spinning and retracted into the machine. Scraps of paper folded out like a reciept. Tails held it up to his eyes while it was still printing. "Hmm" He pondered, looking over the results. Sonic sat up and scratched his ear. "It's interesting all right" Tails said after a while "The readings basically say the metal is something alien, not of this planet"

"Don't say it's the Black Army again" Sonic said blandly "They pissed me off enough last time. I don't even know how we got enough money to rebuild Westopolis" Tails ignored him.

"Thankfully the scanner's been able to read the age of the metal, if not the type. It's over two thousand years old..." He looked at the piece of metal again, which was still smoking. It didn't look so old. In fact, in the places where it hadn't burned up through the entering the atmosphere, it was a shining silver colour. "How odd" Sonic said, clearly not interested "What about the patterns? Did you get anything from that?"

"I'd need internet access. They look like they're from the ancient time periods. Y'know, Egyptian and Aztec" Tails replied "Anyway, we're done here Sonic. We better get back to the workshop" Sonic nodded, walking towards Tails' plane. Before they had even started up the propeller, a call came in from the on screen computer. "Hello?" Tails said, touching the screen with his paw for identification. "Yeah, is this Miles Prower?" the woman on the phone announced. Tails blushed; not many referred to him by his full name since Sonic gave him a nickname. Even his parents had taken to calling him Tails. "Yes it is, who's calling?"

"This is the station square hospital. We have your sister here" The receptionist announced. Tails turned to Sonic, who had an equally dumbfounded look on his face, then returned to the call. "I don't have a sister" He announced.

"That's odd. There's someone here who's declaring themselves to be your sister asking for you urgently. She's quite insistent that until you visit her, we can't treat her. Shall I phone the police?" She sounded quite worried at the fraud, more so than Tails himself.

"No, that won't be necessary. I'll come down as soon as I can" Tails said "Thank you very much" He hung up the call and started the propeller up. "I guess we have to make a stop off at the hospital before we can check out that hunk of metal" He shouted over the noise of the engine. Sonic just sighed and lay back. "Whatever floats your boat buddy. If this girl turns out to be a psycho fangirl, you owe me money" He noted, shutting his eyes as they took off.


	2. Hero

Sonic opened one eye while casually reclining on the back of the Tornado 2 to view whereabouts the duo were. Upon seeing the dusty red sands of the Mystic Ruins, he sighed. "Come on Tails, can't this thing go any faster?" He asked.

"Without a chaos emerald, no" Tails groaned, obviously annoyed. After the incident three months ago where Eggman's cannon successfully fired using the energy of the emeralds they were officially declared weapons of mass destruction by GUN, the lead military force on Earth, and sealed away in GUN's bank vault, watched by Omega and Shadow. It had often been suggested that this be done a long while ago, but it was recognised as being a last ditch effort at saving the world by allowing Sonic to become super, and therefore the emeralds were kept in special locations across the world. Tails had harnessed the energy of the emeralds to power his plane and was usually given one for his acts of heroics.

Sonic continued to survey his surroundings, checking Tails' workshop just in case any of Eggman's robots were still around. Usually Eggman was hatching an evil scheme every few days but no one had heard of him since their last encounter.

The plane dived downwards slightly, now inches away from the train between the Mystic Ruins and Station Square. People waiting at the station waved up at him happily, to which he gave an unenthusiastic wave back. He was constantly getting recognised by people; after all, how many blue anthropomorphic hedgehogs were there on the planet? He could hardly hide from the fame that surrounded him. He shut his eyes once more as soon as the clear Plexiglas tunnel began to shield the train tracks. "Sonic, I've been thinking" Tails began thoughtfully. Sonic sighed at his rest being interrupted. "With Eggman being quiet, I don't really need to have my inventions. So what if I marketed them?" Sonic sat upright, quite surprised.

"Uh, it's up to you Tails" He said after a moment of thinking, returning to his reclined position "Don't you think we suffer enough hassle now we're at a celebrity status? I think we should just lie low. You're not struggling for cash, are you?" Tails shook his head frantically then, unaware if Sonic had his eyes closed or not, said

"No, I was just thinking that sharing the technology might be useful, that's all..."

"Again, I don't control you Tails. Do whatever you think is right. Just don't expect me to be hanging around your place if you release anything" Sonic chuckled, dropping back to sleep.

Since Sonic and Tails (Among their other friends) had gained free access to anywhere in Station Square, the tops of most buildings had been tailor-made into landing pads for the Tornado 2 just for pure convenience. It was unbelievable how many places Sonic and Tails would visit; only last week Sonic had been asked to open the newest chili dog shop in Station Square that owed their name to him, "Chili Hogs"

It was quite true that Sonic and Tails had become exceptionally popular after their many escapades. It started when Sonic saved Station Square from the God of Destruction, Chaos, and escalated with honours from the President of America when Sonic stopped the Earth from being destroyed by the Space Colony ARK. Whenever Eggman hatched a plot, Sonic shivered at the opportunity of being interviewed by another magazine after Eggman's defeat.

The Tornado 2 touched down on the landing pad of the Station Square hospital roughly, causing Sonic to be awoken abruptly by being thrown off the back of the plane and skidding on his behind, grasping onto the side of the building for dear life. Once Tails had ensured the safety of the plane he rushed towards Sonic and grabbed his hand, pulling him upwards. "I'm still working on a soft landing" He blushed. Sonic growled. Tails had been driving the plane since he was 5; surely he knew how to land it by now? At the stairs near the landing pad was a smartly dressed lady with glasses and long blonde hair. "Mr Prower?" She asked with intent, knowing it was indeed the fox she was looking for. "Hello" Tails said politely.

"And you're Mr... Hedgehog?" She asked, looking at Sonic. He laughed; people always assumed Hedgehog was his last name. Being an orphan, Sonic never even knew his last name. "Sure" He smiled.

"Right this way" The woman guided them down a staircase into the building.

Sonic had always hated hospitals; not only were they cramped and full of slippy floors to inhibit his speedy movements, but he hated the way everything was so artificial as opposed to his usual woodland habitat. They were guided through a few white corridors (All identical to Sonic, who yawned in boredom at the fifth corridor) and eventually into a ward. "Miss Prower is through here" The blonde woman said, pointing to a room with the shutter down on the door. "Thank you, miss" Tails smiled as she walked away. He swung the door open to reveal a white bat lying in the bed in front of him, looking a degree paler than usual and distinctly less stunning through lack of makeup. "Thank God you're here" She said breathily and with a groan. "Rouge?" Tails said with a questioning tone instead of the aggressive tone Sonic used afterwards. "Sorry to surprise you like this" Rouge coughed "The nurses said only relatives could visit me. I didn't know who else I could turn to" She turned to look at Sonic who merely glared back. "Sorry if I've taken time out of your schedule, hero" She smiled. Sonic stayed stern, but lessened his glare. "It's fine Rouge. I just don't know how I can be of help. What's wrong with you?" Tails asked. Rouge sighed deeply.

"It's hard times for me..." She began, looking nostalgically at the window.

"Cut the crap" Sonic snapped, much to Tails' surprise "You've been under Knuckles' care for at least two months. No 'hard times' in paradise. You chose to go into prostitution" Tails ears pricked up. He'd been completely unaware. "Listen hero, treasure hunting is an expensive habit. Knuckles doesn't have the technology I need, or the money to buy it. And GUN dropped me as an agent after Shadow wouldn't co-operate with me" Rouge moaned.

"You could just stop" Sonic said bluntly, raising his voice.

"It's an addiction" Rouge put up an iron defense "Can you just stop running?"

"I'm not selling my body to fund new shoes, am I?"

"Stop!" Tails cried, cutting the argument short. Both Sonic and Rouge fell deadly silent. "I just want to know what's wrong" He murmured.

"Last night while I was..." She looked at Sonic who reminded her of Tails' age with a widening of his eyes "...out walking, I was attacked by something"

"Something?" Tails cocked his head to the side.

"Yeah. The doctors just say I have chest cramps from the fall to the floor. But it's bigger than that. I can feel something eating away at me. I'm in agony" She rolled around for exaggeration. "I blacked out and woke up here. I thought you were smart enough to be able to tell me what it is" She smiled at the young fox who blushed in embarrassment. "Well, I have an x-ray at the workshop. Maybe I can check out what's wrong? A second opinion?" As he said this Rouge clapped in delight. "Tails that would be wonderful!"

"I'll be as fast as I can" He smiled, walking out of the door.

"Thank you Tails" She smiled. Sonic went to follow him, but was alerted by a coo from Rouge. "Where do you think you're going, hero? I've got a job for you too" Sonic turned and gave a tiny snarl at her. "If you please" She added. Sonic sighed.

"Fine" He took a seat on one of the un-comfy chairs in the room.

"I need you to tell Shadow I'm sick" She said plainly. Sonic raised an eyebrow.  
"Are things cool between you two now?" He asked completely in the dark on the situation. She shook her head. "That's why I want him to come. I want to make my peace with him"

"Come on Rouge, you're not dying"

"It feels like it" She snapped "And what if I do and we never made any peace?" Sonic pondered it, then stood up. "I'll see if I can persuade him" He said, walking out.

"Thanks hero" Rouge said sweetly "You know I mean that, right?"

"Hm?" Sonic turned around, confused.

"You really are a hero" She beamed at him. Sonic let his guard down for a moment and smiled, then walked out.

Sonic dashed across the city rooftops with skill and agility, only stuttering once to quickly guess the length of the jump from the roof of the bank to the train station. After ignoring all thought and leaving the jump to dumb luck, he dashed across the Plexiglas roof that shielded the tracks. The circumstances of Rouge's hospitilisation were suspicious, and for a moment Sonic questioned whether Eggman could be behind all of this, but ignored it; Eggman was evil but kept his enemies close, recognising Rouge as a useful asset on more than one capture attempt. In addition, Eggman wouldn't do something so petty after three months. His plan was sure to be much bigger. As he approached the end of the track at Mystic Ruins he flipped into the air and dashed to the left towards a rock formation that (rather obviously) hid the GUN safe. Sonic stood in front of the formation, tapping his foot a couple of times, then sank down into the ground on a small disc device.

After watching the Earth travel before him for a few seconds he emerged in a jungle decorated room in front of a large safe. Shadow and Omega immediately sprang into battle positions. Sonic merely waved at them. "Hey guys" He said smoothly "Long time no see" Shadow grunted a greeting back while Omega returned to a statue like position on Sonic's right, backed up against the safe. "Why are you here?" Shadow asked, his back turned to Sonic while he paced around the room. "Rouge is sick" Sonic announced. Shadow stopped pacing momentarily, then continued. "Tell me something I don't know. She's been sick for a long time"

"No Shadow, she's actually in hospital. She got attacked by something and got knocked out" Shadow turned to look at Sonic. "Why should I care?" He mumbled "She can die for all I care" Sonic sighed.

"Aren't you over that yet? She's apologised"

"I was compromised" He spat "Because of her I could've lost my job. It took an awful lot to convince GUN it was her fault" He paced more aggressively.

"And was it?" Sonic asked, enjoying winding Shadow up.

"Of course. I wouldn't walk into such an obvious trap"

"But you did..." Shadow shot a glare at him "...Besides, your job at GUN is so valuable to you that you'd risk a friendship for it?" Shadow considered this for a few seconds.

"My job at GUN is important. I promised Maria to keep the humans safe and anyone who compromises that is my enemy" His voice grew louder and louder as he spoke.

"Calm down" Sonic said, attempting to comfort him by patting him on the shoulder. Shadow nudged him away. "Look, Rouge needs you. Didn't Maria tell you to take care of everyone? Wouldn't she want you to go see Rouge?" Shadow swiftly punched him in the gut.

"You didn't know her!" He roared "Don't pretend that you did!" He regained his cool and Sonic fell against the rocky wall, attempting to keep himself upright. "I would recommend you leave, Sonic" Omega said in his robotic voice "We will duly check on Ms Rouge's illness when we are off duty" Sonic nodded at him to show he understood and climbed back onto the disc, shooting upwards.

"We're not going" Shadow said to the machine, leaning back and shutting his eyes.

"Whatever the situation may be between you and Ms Rouge, it must be settled if she is in a critical state" Omega replied "I will analyse her state of health and judge whether or not we should stay" Shadow grunted again, giving up any argument with the robot.


	3. Work Colleagues

Chapter 3

Work Colleagues

In the corner of the dark laboratory, tiny wires, snapped by some kind of falling debris, flashed violently with electricity and uncovered the a giant egg like man trapped under a girder. His head had dropped, nearly lifeless except for his heavy breathing. As he came to he stretched his head outward and panicked upon realising he was trapped. He looked down at the girder on his legs and felt the extreme pain that had been delayed in his state of unconsciousness. "Damn it" He panted, gritting his teeth to endure the pain. He hoisted his right arm up onto the debris and typed something in on the keypad on his arm; the machine fizzed uselessly and then died. "Damn it!" He repeated, louder and more pain stricken. His heart was beating fast and in an odd manner and to make it worse his chest was thumping with it. He wiped the growing sweat from his brow and attempted to sit back and wait for rescue. Deep down inside he considered how ironic it was that the people he wanted to rescue him were the very people he'd been trying to kill for the past few years. It was only a few months ago that he had Sonic right in his grasps, only to lose him at the last moment.

The pains he felt grew worse, almost unbearable, to a point where he was writhing in pain beneath the wreckage of the laboratory. He arched forwards, the beating in his chest growing more powerful. His chest was tore apart by a small worm creature, spraying sinew, flesh and blood across the dark lab as Eggman's screams died into the night.

Sonic stumbled into Tails' workshop still wounded from Shadow's punch. Tails glanced at him briefly while fishing through his drawers for his x ray. "What did Rouge keep you back for?" He asked casually as Sonic collapsed on a chair.

"Nothing important" Sonic groaned back "Just wanted me to ask Shadow if he'd visit her"

"Judging by your injury, I guess it didn't go so well" Tails replied, shutting the drawer he'd been searching through and opening another. Sonic let loose a further groan to confirm Tails' suspicions. "He'll come round to the idea, I'm sure" Tails smiled, pulling a small device from the drawer. It was about the size of a handgun and near enough the same shape, with a big screen facing tails just above the handle with a touch screen keypad. "Still works" Tails said, surprised "It's a little dusty and takes a couple of presses on the screen to function properly. But hey, it's something" Sonic didn't appreciate any of these words and simply tried to massage his bruising stomach. "If there's anything that can show what's inside Rouge and identify it, it's this. I'll go start up the Tornado" Tails marched out of the workshop towards his plane, beckoning Sonic to follow. The blue hedgehog rolled off the chair and stood up, stretching. Through squinted, yawning eyes he spotted a mechanical hand reach up and grab the side of the cliff and lift itself upwards. It looked like any other Eggman minion but was battle worn with circuits exposed and paint work so scratched it had returned to its original silver-ish body colour. It crawled along the ground towards the blissfully unaware Tails. Sonic dashed over quickly and stomped on its outreaching hand. "Not so fast" He smirked, ignoring his gut pain to appear macho.  
"S-S-Sonic hedgehog" It buzzed back, scanning him with its glass eyes. Sonic changed from looking heroic to mildly confused as Tails span around to observe the crumbling excuse for a machine. "Message" It croaked. It repeated this a couple of times before collapsing. Tails observed the robot closely; there were two holes punched straight through its chest. A tiny CD popped out of the top of its head and was caught by Sonic. He span it around and observed it in the sunlight, bouncing the rays into Tails' eyes. "Doesn't look sabotaged" He said "Maybe it's a genuine message?" Tails shrugged and inserted the disc into his CD player within the Tornado (Underneath the plane's controls Tails had installed a manner of useful devices. As well as a video phone, disc reader and translator it also came equipped with a refrigerator for keeping Knuckles' stock of grapes freezing cold and a device to spray ketchup and mustard in Sonic's favourite ratio). The little screen flashed then showed a darkly lit room where Eggman was standing over a tiny metal box.

"Witness this, Sonic!" Eggman began grandly "I, Dr Eggman, have managed to create a device that is so devastating the whole world will be at their knees to me! This machine is so diabolical that-" Eggman was cut off by a loud whooshing noise and a crashing of metal through the roof, spraying debris everywhere and shutting off the camera. "Hm" Tails pondered, throwing the disc into the ocean below "He's finally lost it alright"

"What was that at the end?" Sonic said, on edge.

"No idea. Looked like a huge chunk of metal. Whatever it was, we've got no time to check it out" Tails replied, hopping into the seat of the plane. Sonic went to lie down on the back of the plane but clenched his gut in pain and slid into the back seat instead.

Eyes opening slowly, Shadow awoke. He didn't observe his surroundings; he knew that if he was waking up, he was directly outside the jungle GUN safe, lying back in his favourite spot. He stretched his neck and looked over to Omega, but the robot was missing. Shadow grew more alert and took an offensive stance. He then looked back at Omega's 'spot'; there was a small GUN teleportation device lying on the floor. "Figures" Shadow muttered to himself. Omega had obviously gone to visit Rouge. Despite not having emotions, Omega was very caring of Rouge, though perhaps it was merely a mistress and minion relationship. Shadow didn't pay much attention to either of them when they had worked together and even less so now that he had a full time job guarding the safe. He considered what Sonic had said to him and sighed. Partially he knew that Sonic was right. Shadow was extremely protective of Rouge and had seen her as a little sister like figure, but since she had lead them into Eggman's trap three months earlier Shadow had felt failure for the first time in his life since leaving Maria, a pain that came upon him bitterly. He had even managed to convince GUN to drop Rouge as an agent in case she compromised him again. He approached the small teleportation device (A round, chrome looking thing with flashing red lights that fit easily into Shadow's palm perfectly) and clutched it, holding his fist shut for a few seconds then vanishing with a bright flash of light.

In a dingy basement beneath the Station Square hospital, Shadow reappeared, landing on one knee and lifting himself up. A secretary dressed in GUN military uniform sat pouting and twiddling a pen between her fingers. Shadow ignored her and marched up the stairs into the hospital building, approaching a nurse who was busily fluttering between rooms. "Excuse me" He grunted "I was wondering if you could guide me to a patient named Rouge?" The nurse blinked a few times then smiled politely. "She's a very popular patient today. I assume you're friends with her?" The nurse asked.

"We're..." Shadow stumbled for an excuse "...Old work colleagues"

"I see. Well, she's just down this corridor here" She pointed to one of the many similar corridors to her left and walked speedily down a different one before Shadow could ask which room it was. He grunted and laboured over to the corridor, checking the doors either side. He pressed his ears to each door, attempting to listen for Rouge's breathy tone or Omega's robotic ramblings. He eventually heard a loud "I apologise, Rouge" from a room mid-way down the corridor and knocked. "Come in" Rouge said, sounding partially happy now she was talking to an old friend. Shadow walked in briskly and shut the door with his foot, lying back on it as he usually did with folded arms and keeping his foot pressed to the door. "Shadow?" Rouge gasped, partially joyous and partially worried. Shadow shot a dangerous look at Omega. "E-123, why did you leave your post?" Shadow commanded. He had refrained from naming him Omega because he didn't see him as anything but a machine. It had been Rouge who had taken to calling it him as his name; Shadow referred to him as E-123 at all times since parting ways with her. "Forgive me, Shadow. I felt compelled to visit Ms Rouge as soon as possible after the information we received from Sonic" Omega buzzed back. Shadow turned his head dramatically, sighed, then muttered "Carry on your conversation"

"It's quite funny, actually" Rouge laughed "He was apologising for your absence before you came in. What are you doing here?" Shadow remained silent. "Fine, I guess, as long as you're here" She broke of most of her sentence by clenching her fangs through the pain. Omega attempted to restrain her slightly to prevent her wings stretching and breaking any equipment. "I mean no offence, Ms Rouge, but may you please sit still?" Omega asked.

"Sure" She laughed through the pain "I'll try. Don't you have an x ray scanner in those goggles of yours, Omega?" The robot shook his tiny head.

"Negative. GUN removed all unnecessary and malicious Eggman accessories from me upon my initiation"

"Something I should remember, right?" She smiled. She looked over to Shadow, who was still looking away. "Would it be useless to try and apologise?" She asked him.

"Yes" He replied quickly. Rouge's ears drooped, and then suddenly pricked up again. "Omega, call the doctor up here!" She wailed, beginning to writhe in her bed "I'm gonna puke this shit up" Omega scrambled for the door, Shadow moving swiftly aside, but stopped as he heard Rouge's moans and fidgeting cease.

"Miss?" Omega enquired "Are you ok? Do you still want the doctor?" Rouge's eyes rolled to the back of her head and her chest was propelled to the air, a small worm creature appearing through all the flesh and scraps of clothing. "Rouge!" Shadow shouted leaping towards her. Omega's metallic hand quickly changed into a machine gun and he spat bullets out at the worm that had taken to crawling around the room. The worm creature escaped through a tiny vent in the corner of the room. "Rouge..." Shadow repeated affectionately, peering into the bat's dead eyes. The same nurse that had directed Shadow to the room rushed inwards. "What is the meaning of all this noise-" She began, soon seeing Rouge's carcass lying on the bed. "Oh God!" She screamed, running out of the room and wailing down the corridors.


	4. No Stopping Business

As the tornado swooped over the Hospital building, Tails noticed a pair of flashing blue lights in his usual space, attached to a helicopter. "Weird" He noted, waking the snoring hedgehog behind him. "What?" Sonic yawned. He then looked below him. "Very weird" He then added, looking at the parked chopper. The tornado radio buzzed violently.

"Tornado 2 this is GUN Jet Hawk" a male voice shouted over the noise of the whirring chopper blades "Bad news I'm afraid, there's been a murder in the hospital that we're handling. We'd prefer it if you kept out of this one" Tails looked back at Sonic to see his perplexed expression matched his own. "A murder in a hospital? That's a tad ironic-" Sonic began, but was cut off by Tails.

"Uh, I guess that's ok. We were just on the way to see a friend who's quite ill"

"By your friend I assume you mean Rouge the Bat?" The GUN officer asked.

"Yeah, I think she has a bad stomach ulcer" Tails made a phony analysis to keep the officer in the dark. "Rouge was the subject of the murder" The GUN officer said bluntly "And it wasn't a stomach ulcer. Our agents witnessed the death" The plane was silent except for the noise of the radio static crackling and the propellers on the Tornado cutting the air. "What? Oh yes, right away sir" the officer began "Tornado 2 you've been granted access to land on top of the Station Square bank. The Commander wishes to speak with you about Ms Rouge's death as well as a few other suspicious deaths from the past weeks" Tails swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Right away" He croaked, flicking a switch to turn the radio off. After a few moments of silence as Tails turned the plane around, Sonic tapped him on the shoulder.

"You ok buddy?" He asked sympathetically. Tails held back the tears. "It's understandable that you want to grieve but Station Square needs us right now. We can grieve for Rouge afterward" Tails nodded and sniffed.

The plane crashed slightly on the roof of the bank though this time Sonic was securely in his seat and only injured his neck slightly. Tails hopped out of the seat and made his way towards the stairs solemnly. This time a tall man greeted them in full GUN get up, complete with helmet and battle armour. "Mr Prower and Mr Hedgehog" Sonic didn't find the way the soldier adressed him as funny after receiving the shocking news "Follow me. The Commander is inspecting the bank vault below" The corridors that lead to the bank vault were not as numerous as those that lead to Rouge's ward in the hospital but were just as tedious; the walls were all a hue of grey or crimson and only had the advanced character of age to differentiate them. "Ah, Sonic" The commander said, presenting the hedgehog with a handshake "It's nice to see you again after all this time"

"Three months isn't that long, Commander" Sonic smiled "But thanks anyway" The commander shot a glare to the grief stricken Tails briefly then whispered "Is he ok?" Sonic nodded with an unsure look on his face. Sonic peered around to observe that there were many guards scattered in the bank, with the staff being absent from all he could see. "I gather the hospital's in a state after Rouge's, uh..." Sonic began.

"Murder" The commander finished his sentence "Yes, that's why we brought you here. The media already smelled the story from a mile off and are on the way, it's only going to get worse"

"How can you be so sure she was murdered?" Sonic said, following the commander as he consulted various soldiers and wandered around the huge room "She was in hospital at the time right?"

"At the moment we'd rather adress it as a murder. We're waiting on a large number of your friends to arrive" Sonic nodded, still confused at the secrecy of the event, and returned to Tails' side. The fox stared blankly at the opposite wall, blinking occasionally but not moving otherwise. "If I'd only kept my machines sorted" He muttered "She'd be ok. We could've fixed what was wrong with her"

"Don't beat yourself up over it" Sonic said, putting his arm around him "You don't know for sure that's what killed her. They're treating it as murder. So it can't have been that" Tails looked up at him and saw his warm smile, then smiled back slightly.

The front doors swung open letting in floods of evening light. Inwards walked Shadow and Omega, both looking unusually calm considering their team mate had died. Sonic felt unsure as to whether the two even knew yet. Had they been able to reach Rouge in time? He grumbled in anticipation and stared at Shadow. "Omega, Shadow" the Commander addressed "What's the situation like at the hospital?"

"Hectic" Shadow snapped quickly. The commander cocked his head at the hedgehog.

"I'm sorry for the loss of your team mate-"

"She wasn't my team mate" Shadow snapped again.

"Even so, we can't stop business just because an agent has died, ex-agent or not" The commander turned away from them and began talking to the same soldier that had guided Sonic and Tails down to the safe. Shadow looked around for a wall and promptly leaned against it, eyes shut. His robot companion simply stood next to him. "I guess they didn't reach Rouge in time" Tails said, his ears drooping.

"The soldier on the radio said that GUN agents were there at the time of her death. I'll bet that it was them. Why would they keep GUN soldiers watching her?" Sonic suggested. Tails nodded, knowing that Sonic made sense for once.

The commander beckoned Shadow, Omega, Sonic and Tails over towards him and they followed, the agents loyally and the heroes warily. "I'm afraid we've not quite managed to sort out what we'd hoped yet..." The commander said with a sigh "So we'll need you to help us out. We need to round up your friends to deliver the bad news. That's Knuckles the echidna, Amy Rose and Cream the rabbit" The group took in the information well, knowing that some of their friends had been left out of this list "We're sending Shadow for Amy, Omega for Cream and Tails for Knuckles. Is that understood? Sonic, you can stop here and have a short chat with me" The commander chuckled but no one else found this amusing. Shadow skated off without a word, Omega jetting behind him. Tails looked to Sonic for guidance, but Sonic merely put his thumb up and grinned. "You'll be ok little buddy. I'll make sure to sort things out over here" He sheepishly nodded towards the fox as he whirred up his twin tails and dashed out of the building.

"Odd, isn't it?" Shadow muttered after some time to his robot companion. They had chosen to take a detour, which Omega had noticed but not commented on; he knew too well that to work with the hedgehog he had to accept everything Shadow said and did was right. "Why did the commander each give us such precise targets to collect?"

"Miles Prower and Knuckles the Echidna are close" Omega plainly beeped "Breaking the news would be easier"

"I'd figured that already" Shadow said emptily "But what about us? As far as I'm aware you don't have a close connection to Cream or her mother"

"If the situation is dangerous and the alien creature is loose, statistically my chances of protecting the rabbit are higher than you, her mother or even herself" The quick profiles of each person Omega had named flashed on his display within his robotic eyes. Cream was only 6 and so was physically the weakest. Even with her Chao companion she would be all too susceptible to any threats. Vanilla, her mother, was also weak. She was far older but not trained at fighting in any way. Shadow only came behind Omega for his lack of weaponry. Omega was readily equipped with machine guns, rocket launchers and flame throwers. Shadow had to rely on using what few Chaos powers he retained from his battle with Black Doom, and even those were only available to him with a Chaos Emerald. "Alien?" Shadow repeated, forcing Omega to shift his concentration "What Alien?"

"The one that escaped from Ms Rouge's body" The image flashed in Omega's memory banks. It was about a foot long with a bulbous head and a tail. It had no visible limbs or even eyes. Omega presumed it moved around much like a snake and used its other senses to help it maneuver around obstacles; it had no problem getting through the metal vent. "Hm" Shadow grunted. Omega clearly saw that Shadow didn't feel up to discussing Ms Rouge's death. "The creature was like nothing in my memory banks. It is classified within Alien in my banks"

"Whatever" Shadow continued to be disinterested and skated faster. Omega had never fully understand human emotion but knew enough to understand it was a complicated thing. "Amy's house is downtown" Shadow muttered; whether to himself or to Omega was unclear "And Cream's is nearby. We should go our own ways"

"Affirmative. Reporting back to GUN base upon finish?" Omega asked, but Shadow had already vanished into the distance.

The Master Emerald shined in the bright sunlight. Up on Angel Island, the sun was always that bit warmer and brighter due to the island being suspended in the air. This would be an ideal paradise for Knuckles if not for him having to sit and guard the Master Emerald all the while. The only times he had explored the island was to recover the pieces of the Emerald when it had been destroyed by Eggman. He rarely even ate anything for fear of jewel thieves. He had thought that with Rouge stopping on the island with him after her little spat with Shadow that they could take it in turns to watch the emerald, allowing Knuckles to explore his home a little, but Rouge had hardly been around. She was around for breakfast and gone the rest of the day until very early the next morning. Knuckles had no idea what she did while she was gone; her night club, aptly named Club Rouge, had been shut down after a link to crime (Knuckles had to trust Rouge when she said she had no part of it, but kept his doubts. After all, she was a world famous jewel thief long before GUN had invented that for her cover) and she didn't keep any other job aside from treasure hunting, which was a lot more like a hobby and not something done late at night. His worries grew considering that Rouge hadn't come back yet and it was late evening. "Perhaps she's just stopped over someone's house" He said to himself. He often talked out loud instead of thinking, a habit that had only developed due to his solitude.

Knuckles opened his eyes and stared into the distance. Hovering just above the ground and approaching him quickly was a small twin tailed fox. Knuckles smiled upon seeing him but quickly wiped it from his face to keep his tough persona. Once Tails was close enough, Knuckles gave a wave. "Hey Tails" He smirked "What brings you here? Eggman active again?" Knuckles expected a speedy reply but the fox stood looking rather sadly at the ground and kicked up a little dust. "What's wrong?"

"It's Rouge" Tails eventually spurted out "She's... gone" Knuckles stood a little dumbfounded.

"Gone?" He asked, hoping that Tails could give him an alternate scenario to the one going through his head.

"She went into hospital after being attacked. She died a short while ago" Tails winced, swallowing a lump in his throat for the second time in one day. Knuckles let the thought churn in his mind and tears came to his eyes, but he held them back. "The commander of GUN wants to see us all at Station Square's bank. I've brought the Tornado if you want to come with me" Tails said, though Knuckles was staring into the distance paying no attention. "Knuckles?" He asked, waving his hand in front of Knuckles' eyes. The echidna shook his head to snap him out of his trance. "Yeah, I'll take a ride in the plane" He croaked.


End file.
